Are you a match?

Published 2:14 pm, Friday, April 22, 2016

Never has it been more easy to save the life of a victim of leukemia.

In the past, people who wanted to become stem cell donors were required to have blood drawn. Then, if they were a match, they underwent a surgical procedure that involved collecting bone marrow using long needles.

The initial blood test and painful marrow collection are no longer necessary.

According to the National Marrow Donor Program, potential donors are now sent a swab, which they run along the inside of their mouth, then send back to be tested. If a match is found, a peripheral blood cell (PBSC) donation can be collected through a sterile IV. The blood is passed through a machine that separates out the cells used in transplants. The remaining blood is returned through the other arm. Today, the majority of donations are collected in this manner, which is less invasive than surgical bone marrow donation.

Bone marrow donation is a surgical procedure in which liquid marrow is withdrawn from the back of the donor’s pelvic bones using special, hollow needles. General or regional anesthesia is always used for this procedure, so donors feel no needle injections and no pain during marrow donation. Most donors feel some pain in their lower back for a few days afterwards.

If you are not yet part of the National Marrow Donor Program, signing up is extremely simple. Visit www.BeTheMatch.org or www.marrow.org, where you will be asked a short list of health history questions to see if you qualify to be a donor.

The National Marrow Donor Program also accepts financial donations on the website. It can cost up to $100 to test a potential donor, so the organization relies on the generosity of people who not only are willing to give of their bodies, but also from their wallets. It’s not a requirement to make a financial donation to receive a test kit, however.

Only 30 percent of patients who need bone marrow transplants find a match within their families. Less than 1 percent of adults in the U.S. take even the first step toward becoming a bone marrow donor, and fewer give to a stranger, according to the National Marrow Donor Program.

People of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds are particularly at risk, since there is less hope of the registry containing a person who is genetically similar.

It takes only a few minutes to register for the program. If you’re a match, you will likely spend a few hours connected to IVs. That is a tiny price to pay to give someone the gift of a lifetime.